Every time we pack and unpack our stuff, we swear that we will not buy anything else and that we will get rid of some of the indecent amount of stuff that we have. We have lied to ourselves for years.

Our lives have been one big, accumulative exaggeration. SMH. We collect everything and you can imagine, living in foreign countries, there’s a lot to collect. While in East Africa, my husband went bonkers for ostrich eggs, plain and etched. He has maybe a dozen or more, we don’t know exactly because they are scattered in at least 3 locations; France, Pennsylvania and Germany.

I don’t remember who started the Tuareg leather box craze but at some point my husband and I both were buying and we bought continuously through 3 countries; Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

Because we had collected every shape, size and color of the small and medium size leather boxes, my husband got bored on our last tour in Mali and decide to go for leather chests. Here is one we found today while unpacking. I think we’re vaguely insane but still able to function.

But it’s not just the souvenirs from foreign countries that we carry around with us. This is our son’s Mickey Mouse mug that he got at Disney World when he was 8 years old. He’s 29 now.

Pfaltzgraff plate left behind during a potluck affair by an indeterminate guest in a forgotten country. My husband does remember that it had cookies on it🙂 If this belongs to you, let us know.

Collecting is normal and I’m sure that many of you have a lot and/or too many things that you have acquired over the years. What I can’t forgive is that we traveled with so much, seemingly unable to either leave some things behind, send them to storage or to our permanent residence. Mud cloth bar, designed and commissioned in Mali by my husband that has since traveled to Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan and now resides in Germany. Overkill, Mullallys, overkill!

Anyway, the little chicken. When we were shopping on Saturday, my husband showed me a little chicken. He said that he knew that we had chicken in the freezer but that we only had parts and that this little chicken was whole. Hint. Whole chicken Sunday.

This simple meal of roasted chicken and vegetables settled us down and relieved some of the “we’re unpacking again” stress.

Roasted Rosemary Chicken and Vegetables

1 little chicken

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 cup white wine

4 carrots, sliced into chunks

4 potatoes, quartered

2 celery branches, cut into chunks

4 onions, quartered

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp mix of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Mix the 2 tbsp olive oil with the garlic and the 1 tbsp rosemary, then brush some all over the chicken and reserve the rest. Place in a roasting pan and set aside.

Mix together the vegetables, herbs, 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil and some salt and pepper, then place in a separate roasting pan. Set aside.

Roast the chicken for 30 minutes at 350 F, pour the white wine over the top and add the vegetables to the oven. Roast for another 30 minutes, then turn the oven up to 400 F, brush the chicken with the reserved garlic, rosemary and olive oil mixture and cook for another 30 minutes.

While I tease you about certain collections (my favorite is the one in your freezer!) I would imagine it would be hard to not collect things if you traveled as much as you have. I like the leather boxes. We lived in pretty small places in California, so we’re not big accumulators. But the longer we live here, the more that changes.

I can relate to the collections. Not only have we collected on any and all travels, but it seems like now our house IS a collection. Roast chicken is the ultimate comfort food and yours is so pretty it make me want to roast one this week!

I have some of those leather boxes too! I don’t think you can leave West Africa without at least one of those, a cross of Agadez, some gris-gris, and a lot of good memories. Bravo for having scored a bar🙂 I was scrolling through the photos thinking, yup, yup, yup, hold up . . . they collected a bar?! Awesome!

Thank you. We have several framed collections of all the cities in Niger “crosses”. They might be here in a box or somewhere else in a box🙂 Gris-gris? Everywhere. Which reminds me, I wonder where our son’s gris-gris is that was given to him by Abdoulaye?

Nice chicken! AND at least you have an excuses, for crying out load…foreign travel, wonderful discoveries.We’re bursting at the seems and haven’t moved in 19 years!
(I LOVE the leather boxes, and no, that isn’t my plate, but it’s a beaut!)